An Inside Look At Apologia’s Constitutional Literacy

There has never been a more important time in history than now to teach your children about their rights and responsibilities as citizens of the United States. One only needs to watch the news or worse, hop on Twitter, to see how grossly misinformed or blatantly ignorant most Americans are about this very subject. I’m not responsible for most Americans just the two that live in my house. While Logan listens in and joins our discussions, it is more pressing that Madison learn this to be the best advocate she can be for people with autism like Logan.

Apologia has come up with a course that covers the Constitution from a Constitutional lawyer. The set comes with a student workbook as well as a 5 dvd set. The student reads an intro, watches the video to answer questions then answers a Probe question or several if you so desire. It is from a Christian worldview as is everything from Apologia. Therefore the viewpoint of the Constitution is from a decidedly conservative angle. This is not a bad thing in any sense of the word. Even if we don’t necessarily lean that far right it is important to know the viewpoint.

Each lesson can be assigned once per week. This gives you nine months to finish the entire program. It is easily doable with the program in it’s current form. Madison only does lessons on Friday & Saturday due to dance. She had no trouble finishing the lesson in that time frame. With that in mind, I would only assign a half a credit in government for the course in it’s current form. It does give a well rounded foundation into how government should and does work as it pertains to the Constitution. For a full credit, you would need to add more substance to it in my opinion.

Michael Farris is a Constitutional lawyer who is also Chancellor of Patrick Henry College as well as counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Fund. He clearly knows his law. It is a well written course by someone who clearly knows what he is talking about as it pertains to the Constitution. He leaves no stone unturned as to why certain well known laws and Congressional or Presidential actions may or may not be Constitutional.

“Prepare your students to begin their voting careers as informed citizens well versed in the content and meaning of the United States Constitution. This 25-part lecture series is engaging and approachable, combining high quality video and music with hundreds of beautiful photographs, timelines, and special effects. The course features over 500 minutes of engaging video instruction by Farris, who has argued cases before the United States Supreme Court.” Apologia website

Episode 1: Introduction to the ConstitutionEpisode 2: Article 1, Section 1Episode 3: Judicial Review and Original IntentEpisode 4: The Powers of CongressEpisode 5: Commerce and General Welfare ClauseEpisode 6: Powers of the PresidentEpisode 7: Does the Bill of Rights Apply to the States?Episode 8: The Establishment of ReligionEpisode 9: The Free Exercise of Religion, Part 1Episode 10: The Free Exercise of Religion, Part 2Episode 11: Freedom of Speech and PressEpisode 12: Freedom of AssociationEpisode 13: The Second AmendmentEpisode 14: The Fourth AmendmentEpisode 15: Procedural Due ProcessEpisode 16: Property RightsEpisode 17: Equal ProtectionsEpisode 18: Abortion “Rights”Episode 19: Homosexual “Rights”Episode 20: Parental RightsEpisode 21: International LawEpisode 22: Is the National Debt Unconstitutional?Episode 23: Was the American Revolution an Ungodly Rebellion?Episode 24: Was the Constitution Illegally Adopted?Episode 25: Reclaiming Our Country

The videos take about 20 minutes. Madison wanted more information to answer the questions. She thought he could have elaborated more with the answers. She struggles with perfectionist tendencies. I tell you that so you have an idea that perhaps he answers them perfectly fine but not up to her standards. We had this same problem with other programs. She wants all the information about the subject at once. She certainly didn’t get her perfectionist trait from me.

So far we are enjoying learning about this important document. I am ashamed to say that I am learning just as much as Madison. We are having some really great discussions. I love that homeschooling allows me to be a part of molding her into an intelligent , beautiful young lady. Apologia certainly makes it easy to be sure she takes her job as a citizen of the United States seriously.

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About Us

Call me Penny, wife to Michael as well as mom to Logan who has autism and Madison who is pursuing a dance career.
Based on my own personal and often difficult experiences with autism, I hope to educate families of children with autism on how to navigate their world from pre diagnosis to adulthood.